Apparatus for tanning hides



(No Model.)

B. R. LOGKE.

APPARATUS FOR TANNING HIDBS.

Patented June 5, 1883.

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N4 PETERS. Phbko-lull'wgnphor. wuhin mn. I10.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

EDWIN R. LOOKE, or KEENE, ASSIGNOR, BY MESNE ASSIGNMENTS, To HIM- SELF,ND ALDEN W. STEVENS, OF EAST SULLIVAN, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

APPARATUS FOR TANNING HIDES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 278,981, dated June 5,1883.

Application fi ed February :26, 1883. (No model.)

To all whom itmay concern Be it known that I, EDWIN RUTHvIN LocKE, ofKeene, in the county of Cheshire, of the State of New Hampshire, haveinvented a new and useful Improvement in Apparatus or Means for TanningHides; and I do hereby declare the same to be described in the following specification and represented in the accompanying drawings, of whichFigure 1 is a top view, Fig. 2 a side 616"L- tion, and Fig. 3 alongitudinal section, of a set of tan-vats provided with my invention,the nature of which is duly set forth in the claim hereinafterpresented, such invention being for the purpose of facilitating thehandling of hides, or transferring them from one vat to anothersuccessively in the Series, during the process of tanning them.

It is Well known that in efiecting the tanning of hides it has beencommon to employ a series of vats, the tanning-liquor of each beingstronger in tanning than that of the next preceding vat. The hides,strung or attached together, were, after having been suffered to remainin each vat a sufiicient period of time, removed therefrom andtransferred into the next succeeding vat of the series. Prior to myinvention such transferring of the hides has usually, been accomplishedby manual labor, with hooks or other suitable implements, therebyconsuming much time and skill, which by my improvement is verymaterially reduced, as by means of it a small boy can accomplish in agiven time what heretofore has required the labor of some two or moremen to effect. Attempts have also been made to accomplish the resultby'mechanism in some respects analogous to that herein described, thoughdiffering therefrom in other and important particulars, a mechanism forsuch purpose being represented in the United States Patent No. 219, 537

In the drawings, A A A denote three tan pits or vats, arranged in theorder as-shown. Extending along them is a rail way or ways, B B, for acarriage, G, to run upon, such carriage being provided, by preference,with wheels'a, to rest and run on the rails or ways B B. This carriagesupports a 'revoluble reel,

ings at or in the tops of the posts I) b of the carriage. One of thesaid journals projects beyond its post, and has fixed concentrically onit (the said journal) a grooved wheel or pulley, 0, about which and twoother such wheels, at e, an endless band, f, is run. The wheels (I e aresupported by and so as to re voly e freely in two posts, 9 h, arrangedwith the vats in manner as represented, there being on the axle of oneof such wheelsa crank or -a driving-pulley for revolving it. The endlessband goes from the first wheel, (I, to and entirely around the pulley orwheel a, thence to and half-way around the wheel 6, from which it willbe seen that on revolving the that it with its sustaining-carriage maybe moved from one vat to the other throughout the series, first in onedirection and next in the opposite, and in the ineantimehave the endlessband and the wheel 0 in engagement.

in using the revoluble reel the carriage is to be moved soas to bringthe reel directly over the partition between the first and second of thevats, after which one of the end hides of the string in the said firstvat is to be raised out of the vat and thrown over the reel, which maybe supposed to be in revolution in a proper direction, in which case itwill cause the hides successively to be drawn from the first vat andtransferred or dropped into the second one. This process of removing thestring of hides from vat to vat is to be repeated from time to time, inmanner and by means of the revoluble reel, as circumstances may require.

I claim The combination of a series of tan-vats and the revoluble reeland its supporting-carriage, the sustaining rails or ways of suchcarriage,

D, whose journals extend into suitable bear .65 wheel (I the reel willbe put in revolution, and

and the endless band and its three supportingwheels, adapted andarranged substantially and to operate as set forth.

EDVIN RUIHVIh LOGKE.

Witnesses:

ARTHUR F, BIcELoW, E. D. KNIGHT.

